100 Dollars Raised for Every Year Alive: 16 Year Old with Heart Disease Wasn't Supposed To Live

Tallahassee, FL - Katherine Cox was born 16 years ago and was not expected to live because of the multiple open heart surgeries she would have to undergo. Cox states, "I was born with congenital heart disease and when I was 6 weeks old, I had my first open heart surgery." Heart disease is the number one killer in men and women, the number 2 cause of death in children and more prominent than all cancers combined. Cox says, "when you think heart disease you think of like 60 year olds and 80 year olds but it's just as common for a child to be born with heart disease."

Amy Townley, the Assistant Nurse Manager in the open heart unit at Tallahassee Memorial Hospital, has been actively involved in raising money for the past 3 years. She says, "I love doing it because it's fun, it gets people involved, it increases awareness and it just promotes healthiness." According to Townley, research is very important and determines which treatment will be most effective for each patient and states, "we get a large number of people in the community to come and be supporters of the American Heart Association and raise the money to help increase the funds that they have for research."

This weekend, the American Heart Association is hosting their annual Heart Walk on Saturday, October 6, 2012. It's a free event and it starts at 9am at Tom Brown Park in Tallahassee. Townley says, "everyone just comes, whether it's animals, kids, families, anyone that wants to come can come and walk and you just congregate there together as supporters of heart disease."

For more information on the Heart Walk and Event Sponsorship inquiries call (800) 257-6941 x6088 or email gsaTallahassee@heart.org.

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